Does using a hotspot cost money?

Imagine sitting down in your favorite coffee shop and booting up your laptop to write an email, only to realize the cafe’s Wi-Fi is down. Should you move to another coffee place?

Of course not – you can just turn on your smartphone’s mobile hotspot and share its cellular data with your laptop. Yet, a vital question remains – does using a hotspot cost money?

While enabling a hotspot is indeed free, data charges while hotspotting depend on your specific mobile plan. For an unlimited one, there’s absolutely no need to worry, but it’s an entirely different story for other types of mobile data plans. With that said, let’s explore how a mobile hotspot works and how you can save data on hotspot.

How does a mobile hotspot work?

A mobile hotspot acts as a bridge between your phone and smart devices, such as laptops, tablets, and other smartphones, by providing them with internet access. You can also think of it as a feature that transforms your phone into a miniature wireless router. Once you enable a mobile hotspot, your phone’s cellular connection turns into a Wi-Fi signal, much like a traditional home router.

Mobile hotspots are available on most modern Androids and iPhones; even cellular-enabled tablets support it. Regardless of what type of device you’re currently using, you can enable its mobile hotspot feature with a few simple taps. Furthermore, you can also protect it with a password, just like you’d lock down your home Wi-Fi network.

A hotspot can be particularly helpful in situations when there’s no Wi-Fi signal or when connected to an unprotected network, which can happen during travel or in remote areas. However, keep in mind that activating your phone’s mobile hotspot shares the phone’s monthly data, which could cost you a lot if you don’t have an unlimited data plan.

How much data does hotspotting really use?

The amount of data a mobile hotspot consumes depends on your online activities. As such, the hotspot cost on iPhone/Android directly depends on what you do when browsing. To make things easier to understand, I’ve included a detailed table with various hotspotting activities and the amount of mobile data they typically require.

Here’s what you can expect in terms of data consumption:

Activity	Average data usage
Browsing the web	20MB per hour
Reading/sending emails	Less than 1MB per email
Downloading/uploading photos	5MB per photo
Scrolling on Facebook or X	50MB per hour
Scrolling on Instagram	600MB per hour
Scrolling on TikTok	500MB-1GB per hour
Video chatting	300-800MB, depending on the service
Streaming music	7MB per 4-minute song
Watching videos at 480p	500-700MB per hour of viewing
Watching videos at 720p (HD)	1.2-1.9GB per hour of viewing
Watching videos at 1080p (Full HD)	2-3GB per hour of viewing
Online gaming	40-300MB per hour
Downloading a file	Depends on the file size

While these are just rough estimates, managing your monthly data becomes crucial if you’re on a limited plan. An eSIM can make things a bit easier to manage, while services like Nomad offer transparent prepaid plans that help you monitor and control your hotspot data usage.

How much does a hotspot cost?

Activating the mobile hotspot feature, whether you’re on an iPhone or Android, comes at no additional cost. However, once other devices connect to your phone and start surfing, scrolling, and streaming, your expenses can quickly rack up.

While hotspotting, these devices use data directly tied to your mobile plan, and the costs of hotspotting depend on the type of plan you’re using. With that said, here are a few different cost scenarios you should consider:

• Unlimited data plans. With these packages, you’ll have nothing to worry about, as using a hotspot doesn’t incur any extra charges.
• Pay-as-you-go plans. These types of plans charge you for every MB or GB you use, making hotspots potentially very costly.
• International roaming charges. As if data wasn’t already expensive, using a hotspot outside your home country takes it to another level. Doing this can incur significant fees unless you have an international data plan.

Some prepaid data packages, like Nomad’s eSIM plans, offer an easy way to navigate these complexities by providing transparent and predictable pricing. These services deliver fixed-rate prepaid data plans, ensuring you never have to deal with hidden fees or unexpected roaming expenses while traveling.

Visit Nomad

How to use a mobile hotspot?

Whether you’re sharing your phone’s cellular network to your own tablet or laptop or letting others join, you’ll first need to set it up.

For Android

If you’re looking to set up a mobile hotspot on an Android device, here’s what you need to do:

1. Open settings. Find the Settings icon on your home screen or inside your phone’s app drawer and open it.
2. Find the hotspot setting. Locate the Portable Hotspot option near Wi-Fi and Bluetooth at the top of the settings menu. Alternatively, use the search tool to find it.
3. Enable the hotspot. Toggle the Portable Hotspot feature to enable it.
4. Customize the hotspot. Tap the Set up portable hotspot option to change its name and set the password.
5. Connect other devices. On a different device, find the hotspot among the available Wi-Fi networks or Bluetooth devices, tap on it, and enter the password to connect.

For iPhone

The steps are as follows to activate a personal hotspot on an iPhone:

1. Launch settings. Open the Settings app from your iPhone’s home screen.
2. Enable the personal hotspot. Tap the Personal Hotspot option and toggle the Allow others to join setting.
3. Set the password. Tap on Wi-Fi Password to change the auto-generated password to the one you want to use.
4. Connect other devices. Using a different smartphone, tablet, or laptop, head into Wi-Fi connections or Bluetooth devices and find the network you’ve just set up on your iPhone. Then, tap on it to connect and enter the password you’ve chosen in the previous step.

Tips for reducing data usage on hotspots

If you’re looking to save data on hotspot and lower data consumption to a minimum, here are a few tips that can help:

• Add a hotspot password. Inputting a password during the initial connection is inconvenient. However, it prevents other devices from using up your limited data.
• Enable data limits. Most smartphones let you limit the amount of data a hotspot session uses. You can set them up to turn the hotspot off when the limit is reached.
• Use data-saving modes. Web browsers and various other apps have data-saving or lite modes. Enabling these can decrease your data consumption by up to 60%.
• Lower the video streaming quality. The differences in data usage between 480p and 1080p are massive, so limiting the video quality can save a lot of data.
• Disable automatic updates. Both Google Play Store and App Store are usually set up to update your apps automatically. However, you should turn these auto-updates off while hotspotting.

Visit Nomad

Final Thoughts

Hotspots represent a quick and convenient way to stay connected to the internet when Wi-Fi networks are down or unavailable. However, understanding the costs associated with hotspots is still crucial for their effective use.

While turning on a mobile hotspot is free, once the connected devices start surfing the web and streaming videos, your mobile plan’s data can quickly disappear.

To avoid this, you should always monitor your data usage and follow the tips for reducing data consumption on hotspots. Plus, if you often travel, fixed-rate data plans, like Nomad’s eSIM plans, can save you from unexpected roaming charges while hotspotting.

FAQ